Drill will send students to evacuation centers Tuesday

Residents who see Grandview Heights students leaving their schools in the middle of the day Tuesday, May 14, shouldn't be alarmed.

The students that day will take part in an evacuation drill to make sure they know where to go and to which teacher they should report in case of an actual emergency.

"It will be a drill, just like the tornado and fire drills we regularly hold at the schools," Superintendent Ed O'Reilly said.

As part of its crisis plan developed with the assistance of the Grandview Heights police department, the district has identified locations in the area to which students will be sent in case their building has to be evacuated, he said.

Those evacuation centers have always been identified, even in earlier crisis plans, O'Reilly said.

On May 14, students from the high school and Edison Intermediate/Middle School will go to the Grandview Heights Public Library; Stevenson Elementary School students will walk to Boulevard Presbyterian Church.

"Those are two of our evacuation centers and we have others identified in the community in case those locations were not available in an emergency situation," O'Reilly said.

Along with making sure students proceed in an orderly fashion during the drill, it will be important to make sure the students remember which teacher they have been told to report to during the exercise, he said.

"We want to make sure they know where they need to go, even if they are in gym class or out at recess," O'Reilly said.

No specific scenario will be simulated in the exercise, he said; students simply will be told it is time to leave the school building and go to their assigned location.

Notifications of the drill are being sent out to parents, O'Reilly said.

"We want to make sure people know what we're doing on the 14th," he said. "We don't want anyone to panic and misunderstand what's going on."

The district is appreciative of the support and cooperation provided by the police department, library and church as it plans the evacuation drill, O'Reilly said.